U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (RINO) Votes Against Religious Liberty

Despite receiving hundreds of emails, faxes and phone calls from his constituents,Mark Kirk, the junior U.S. Senator (R) from Illinois, failed to uphold religious liberty and freedom of conscience. Instead, Sen. Kirk voted with the Democratsin favor of radical legislation that wouldundo the protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)–the very law that the Court used to rule in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties. U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Udall (D-CO) were the chief sponsors of this ominous legislation.

Republican U.S. SenatorsLisa Murkowski from Alaska and Susan Collins from Maine also joined the Democrats in voting to overturn RFRA .

In the end, the so-called “Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act” was defeated 56-43 on a procedural vote. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who voted against the bill so that he can revive it later, said the Senate would vote again on the issue before year’s end.”

This is not the first time that Sen. Kirk has acted against the interest of people of faith. Late last year he confirmed the concerns of many conservatives when he abruptly canceled his hosting of a symposium by The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society (based in Rockford) at the Senate’s Dirksen Building after hearing complaints from gay and pro-gay rights groups. The reservation was set months in advance.

Sen. Kirk’s record on life issues is also reprehensible. He supports the freedom of women to kill their preborn babies. He supports experimenting on human embryos. He supports federal subsidization of Planned Parenthood.

He opposes bans on partial-birth abortions. He opposes laws that make it a crime to harm a preborn baby during the commission of a crime. He opposes bans on interstate transport of minors seeking abortions. He opposes government funding of health care providers that don’t provide abortion information.

Sen. Kirk voted with Democrats in the U.S. Senate to pass the onerous Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which if passed in the House would prevent employers from taking into account the volitional and public sexual choices of potential employees. So, Sen. Kirk seeks to prohibit employers from choosing not to hire cross-dressers.

Sen. Kirk was a co-sponsor of the “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” which in reality is a law that addresses not acts but thoughts.

In his desire to allow those who affirm a homosexual identity to serve openly in the military, Sen. Kirk voted in favor of repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

Sen. Kirk co-sponsored the “Safe Schools Improvement Act,” another deceptively named, homosexuality-affirming bill that hijacks bullying prevention in order to expose other people’s children to Leftist beliefs about homosexuality.

The anti-life, anti-natural marriage, anti-religious liberty so-called “Republican” Mark Kirk must be challenged in the next primary in 2016. It is not merely his morally vacuous votes that justify his ouster. While in office, he is disseminating his ideas among his colleagues in the halls of power. He and other Republicans devoid of a moral compass on the essential issues of life and sexuality are polluting the only party that is capable of promoting legislation that will sustain this country.

Sen. Kirk is not good for the Republican Caucus in the U.S. Senate, he is not good for the Illinois Republican Party and he is certainly not good for millions of conservative people of faith.

Despite what feckless socially “moderate” Republicans claim, abortion, same-sex faux-marriage, homosexuality, and gender confusion are neither peripheral to the health of a nation nor subordinate to fiscal issues in importance. These issues are central, and candidates who don’t understand that should be rejected no matter what other skills and knowledge they possess.

Don’t settle for the morally stunted candidate. Next time someone says, “Well, you can’t expect a candidate to be perfect. Just hold your nose and vote for the lesser evil,” Tell them you will. Tell them you’ll support the candidate that may be wrong on the fiscal issues, but is right on the most important issues—the issues on which the existence of a society depends.

David E. Smith is the Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute and Illinois Family Action.

Author

Laurie Higgins has worked as the Cultural Analyst for the Illinois Family Institute (IllinoisFamily.org) since the fall of 2008. Prior to that, she worked full-time in the writing center of a suburban Chicago high school, where all four of her children attended. She is currently working on bulking up her stick arms by dead-lifting her five grandchildren--one at a time, of course.

Posting Policy

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.